The maze is a pattern-detection game that has been popular for a long time, particularly with children. The usual printed form of maze provides full visibility of the pattern, and an unobstructed path is traced from start to finish with a pencil. While simple mazes may be memorized by tracing with a non-marking pointer, attempts to make the game more challenging by increasing the pattern complexity present such a formidable problem of pattern learning that is is almost never attempted, and the path is usually traced with a marking pointer.
The prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 3,539,190 to Ronald W. Redo, patented Nov. 10, 1970; U.S. Pat. No. 3,540,731 to Raymond L. Muncey, patented Nov. 17, 1970; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,939,709 to Louis L. Verveer, patented June 7, 1960. None of these present a maze or pattern-learning challenge characterized by an extensive variety of easily-changed patterns and the use and training of memory through a combination of trial, error, and judgement in the solution process rather than visual perception or pure chance.